A few weeks ago I received an email promoting the candidacy of a local politician. Not only had I never heard of this particular candidate before, I did not even realize there were local elections taking place in November. Being so wrapped up in the upcoming presidential election, I have paid little attention to the local politicians that can actually do important things for me – like fix pot holes, install traffic lights, and “bring a level of security to the neighborhood.” Fortunately I was on my party’s email list and received this message which shed some interesting insights into a candidate I would not have learned about elsewhere.

For the countless candidates that can not rely on mass media outlets and multi-million dollar campaigns to spread their message, email is the perfect platform to reach a targeted number of voters in a specific geographic area. According to the Pew Internet Project, 78 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of independents go online. Among Internet users, 55 percent of Republicans, 61 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of independents look online for news about politics or the 2008 campaigns. 49 percent of Republicans, 50 percent of Democrats and 48 percent of independents use the Internet, email or text messaging to learn about the campaign and engage in the political process.

Leveraging the power of email could make the difference come November.

With marketers increasingly looking for cost-effective channels with results that can be easily measured, email is becoming one of the most-widely used channels in the multi-channel arsenal.

According to a new report from the Direct Marketing Association, more than three-quarters of online marketers in the US said they use email more now than they did three years ago.

It is a great example of a channel that can drive sales to other channels and at a fraction of the cost. Besides being a great direct-response medium, it is proving to be a powerful branding tool, as witnessed in Datran Media and Dynamic Logic's recent research study.

Marketers know that email can be a great direct response channel, encouraging consumers to take immediate action and help boost sales, but not many people have thought of email as a branding medium. Until now.

A new study comducted by Dynamic Logic shows inbox advertising can provide significant branding benefits in addition to the acquisition strengths typically attributed to the media channel.

The results counter mainstream characterizations of inbox advertising as an acquisition-only vehicle. More than many other channels, inbox advertising gives companies the ability to deliver highly targeted messages to opt-in consumers. Because it significantly increases the chances of delivering the right message to the right consumer at the right time, inbox advertising can have the additional benefit of creating a more favorable impression of the company's brand.

The full results of the study can be viewed online.

According to a new study conducted by AOL, more than half of New York residents say they are addicted to email. With most of the respondents surveyed admitting they check their emails multiple times a day and even during the middle of the night, it is no wonder they call New York “the city that never sleeps.” And when it comes to exactly where users are checking their emails, no place is off limits. New Yorkers admit to checking their email everywhere from church to the bathroom.

With mobile devices like the iPhone and the Blackberry, email can go anywhere you go, even on vacation. That’s correct, one in four New Yorkers takes email access into consideration when planning a trip, and one-third say they feel obligated to check work email while on break from the office. I have to admit, my blackberry joined me on my Honeymoon to Hawaii. You’d think my wife would have been furious, but she was busy checking email on her Trio.

However, it’s not all work and no play. The average New Yorker checks their personal email four times per day at work. I may be guilty of doing this a few times myself.

While we New Yorker’s are the most email addicted city in the nation, other states are not far behind. Nationally, 46% of respondents claimed they were addicted to email. This is all good news for email marketers. As technology continues to progress and more advanced mobile devices penetrate the market, reaching consumers through email will likely mean marketers will be able to communicate with busy consumers anytime, anywhere. And they will need to tailor their messages and creative to effectively target this email obsessive audience.

Datran Media has been selected as one of FastCompany.com's Fast 50 most innovative reader favorites

According to a new study, email is the most effective and most widely used form of direct response marketing. This week, Brandweek published the results of the annual marekting survey conducted by Direct Partners, New York. This news should be exciting to the number of brands that are increasingly adopting email and other forms of online advertising to their multi-channel marketing mix.


The survey of large US corporations finds that “email is used primarily by 35% of companies compared to 25% which use traditional direct mail and 21% who use package, statement stuffers or free standing inserts.” Click here to read the full article.

The study complements direct agency and brand case studies that detail the impact of email as both an acquisition and branding channel.

Larry Weber, host of Webmaster Radio's Market Edge program, recently sat down with Datran Media's President Matt Keiser, and discussed email and social marketing. This is a really in-depth discussion that provides a ton of great insight into both media channels.

Check it out.

New updates to the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 go into effect today. As always, advertisers and list owners are required to understand the regulations and, where applicable, modify practices to conform to the new requirements. This should not come as too much of a surprise to email marketers as news of the updates have been discussed often the past month.

DM News has more information on the changes and UnsubCentral, a provider of CAN-SPAM solutions, has authored a complimentary whitepaper that helps marketers understand what the updates to the law mean for them. It is really a great resource for quickly understanding all the new provisions. You can download it here if you are interested.

It seems as if everyone is using social networks these days. Even I have a profile on a social network and I am not very social. Latest figures show that Facebook has over 70 million active users. With these users spending more time on the social networking site, it is making it a bit more challenging for marketers to reach them. The good news is Facebook is a great medium for messaging to customers.

I've penned a new whitepaper that will help marketers understand the emerging social media channel and offer easy steps to getting social with customers on Facebook in no time. Be sure to download it if you want social media face time.

I was reading Melinda Kruger’s MediaPost column in which she discusses the Habeas statistic that reveals "60% of emailers employ two or more personal email addresses, giving a different address to entities they do not trust, while maintaining separate accounts for trustworthy sources." I am glad to hear I am not the only schizophrenic email user. For the last few years I have lived under 3 separate identities with 3 separate addresses – Outlook, AOL and Gmail. Until recently, I kept all three explicitly separate from each other - I used one for work, one for making purchases and one for communicating with friends and family. Recently however, I have found myself giving some of my favorite companies my personal email account. I’m not sure why I do it, I check all of my accounts every day, but I feel as if I am giving some of these companies an exclusive VIP invitation to contact me. That’s probably because these brands have given me something of value in the past and I look forward to their messages. Plus, I do not mind sharing cool new product announcements or great sales with my friends. And after finishing Melissa’s column, her suggestion to marketers makes perfect sense – “We don't need just to stand out in the inbox, we need to get subscribers to access their ‘inbound only’ accounts.”